The Old Quay House » Foodhttp://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog
The Old Quay House BlogFri, 20 Feb 2015 17:11:31 +0000en-UShourly1Indulgent hot chocolate recipehttp://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/indulgent-hot-chocolate-recipe/
http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/indulgent-hot-chocolate-recipe/#commentsFri, 13 Feb 2015 15:30:06 +0000http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/?p=1256There is much debate as to what makes the perfect hot chocolate but this is our head chef Ben Bass’s recipe. We think it is rather special so wanted to share it with you.

The quantities below will fill a few mugs, or be enough for two people allowing for top-ups! Why not try it out at home?

Warm the milk, water and sugar, then add both the chocolate and cocoa powder. This way the chocolate won’t burn on the pan while warming up. Bring to a simmer and whisk for a good few minutes until thick and frothy. If you would like to speed up the process, once the chocolate has melted, take the pan off the heat and try using a stick blender rather than a whisk to thicken and froth the ingredients. Pour into a mug and enjoy!

For something a little more grown up, chilli, tequila, orange and rum all make good additions to this recipe. Split a mild chilli and add it while warming the milk (you want spice, not eye-watering heat!). Orange zest can be infused in the same way. Remove either the chilli or zest before adding the chocolate. Rum or tequila can be added once the mixture is off the heat. The addition of cream is also optional!

Some of our guests may have spotted recent press coverage for The Old Quay House. We are thrilled to have received some fantastic comments, and wanted to share them with you.

Frank Barratt, travel editor for The Mail on Sunday visited us in the autumn. He said: “For a welcome breath of sea air, head for Fowey. The Old Quay House is the ideal weekend hotel: it boasts a great location in the centre of town and a fine restaurant.”

Lesley Gillilan wrote about us in Coast Magazine following a recent trip.“A sophisticated reinvention of an 1850s seamen’s mission, Fowey’s best hotel fronts on to Fore Street and backs on to the estuary – its terrace-on-the-quay is part of Fowey’s modern waterfront life. The rooms are simply but luxuriously furnished in restful neutrals (some have roll-top baths, giant beds and fabulous views) and there’s a glamorous penthouse suite on the top floor. The excellent Q restaurant spills on to the terrace.”

Ana Franca, writing for Telegraph Travel says: “…The Old Quay House couldn’t be more centrally, nor more scenically, located…the perfect choice for those seeking time away from busy city streets, particularly if you like big walks.” To read the full review, click on the link here.

This is the perfect dish if you are entertaining or wanting to chill out on Boxing Day in front of the TV. I would recommend making it well in advance, or at least a few hours before you plan to serve it so it can reach the right temperature and consistency. You could also substitute the hot salmon with crab meat or smoked mackerel.

Potted salmon:

200g hot smoked salmon

250g unsalted butter, diced

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Big pinch of ground mace or nutmeg

Big pinch of smoked paprika

1 tbsp Port (you could also use a different fortified wine, e.g. Marsala, Madeira etc)

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Tabasco, to taste

Shred the salmon by hand or quickly in a food processor. Melt a quarter of the butter in a saucepan, add the spices, lemon zest and a few grinds of black pepper. Add the fish and stir well. Add Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and Port. Add the remaining butter and stir well to emulsify. Remove from the heat when the butter is almost all melted and keep stirring. Add tabasco to taste and check the seasoning. Put into 4 small kilner jars or a larger bowl if you are planning to share one dish. If you are making the potted salmon in advance, remove from the fridge about an hour before serving in order for it to reach room temperature. It will keep for a week in the fridge.

Serve with the lemon purée, pickled shallots and poppy seed bread.

Lemon purée:

2 lemons, unwaxed

Salt

Sugar, granulated or caster

Cover the lemons in water in a saucepan. Add a pinch of salt. Boil for at least an hour, probably more, topping up the water if needed. The lemons need to be completely cooked and very soft. Put the lemons in a blender and purée, adding some of the cooking water if necessary, to make a smooth purée . Season with a little salt and sugar. The purée should be bitter, almost sherbet like in flavour, to counter the buttery fish.

Tip: If you are short on time, you could substitute the fresh lemons with preserved ones.

Pickled shallots:

This pickling liqueur can be used for absolutely everything. We use it for shallots, golden beets, raw pickled butternut squash, cucumbers and raw turnips for our oxtail dish. For pickled ginger, add a few drops of grenadine to create the pink ginger you buy in jars!

100ml honey

100ml white wine or cider vinegar

100ml white wine

100ml water

a sprig of thyme

1 shallot, finely sliced

Bring all ingredients to the boil and allow to cool before using. Then add a finely sliced shallot to the mix and leave for a few hours, preferably overnight.

Poppy seed bread:

This is our standard bread recipe scaled down to home use. A word of warning – it is quite a wet dough!

250g bread flour

145ml water (add a little more if needed)

15g yeast, dry or fresh

4g salt

8g caster sugar

8g vegetable oil

1 tbsp poppy seeds

Put all ingredients into a mixer and mix well. Prove for an hour. On a flat surface sprinkled with flour, knead or knock back the dough to squash the air out. Divide the dough into four and shape into flutes. Prove for a second time for up to one hour. Place on a baking tray and spray with water. Bake for 11-12 minutes at 230C in a conventional oven or 210C if you have a fan-assisted oven.

Padstow Christmas Festival takes place next week from Thursday 4th to Sunday 7th December and is one of the country’s biggest free food festivals. We are really looking forward to it here at The Old Quay House. Our head chef Ben Bass will be doing a demo which takes place in the Festival Kitchen at 12 noon on the Sunday 7th December so if you are near Padstow please do come and watch. Ben will be making “potted hot smoked salmon with lemon purée and poppy seed bread”. “This is a very simple dish to make but it is delicious and great as a canapé or a quick supper. All the ingredients are easy to source year round, and it doesn’t require any complicated kitchen equipment which is a bonus,” says Ben.

Sticking to the salmon theme, Ben’s recipe for “coriander cured salmon, avocado, fennel and smoked tomato” is featured in the new edition of the Padstow Festival Cookbook. It is one of 46 fantastic recipes contributed by chefs taking part in this year’s festival or who have done so previously. If you’re keen to get hold of a copy of the book, they are now on sale. You will be able to buy one in Padstow next week or via the Padstow TIC website.

Our granola pots are a popular breakfast choice among our guests so we thought we would share our head chef Ben Bass’s special recipe so you can recreate them at home. They are a great start to the day, with the added bonus of being very simple to make.

For the granola, mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Warm the syrup, oil, vanilla (if using) and grated orange in a pan, whisking to break up the vanilla and zest. Mix this well into the dry ingredients.

Cook on greaseproof paper on a baking sheet, in as thin a layer as possible for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees celsius, stirring a few times to ensure an even golden colour and no sticky, syrupy bits.

Allow to cool and put in an airtight container. It will keep for a few weeks.

In a nice glass, or a bowl for a bigger breakfast, layer the compote, then the yogurt and finally, add a generous handful of granola.

The granola can be used for all sorts of things – eaten by itself as a snack or mixed with golden syrup and butter, a handful of oats and baked like a flapjack. This is not a healthy snack, but delicious nevertheless!

We are pleased to welcome the addition of Chandon Brut to our wine list. This chardonnay-led méthode traditionnelle sparkling wine from Argentina has a bright and fresh fruit bouquet of citrus blossom, subtle pear and white nectarine. It is perfect as an aperitif.

So with this in mind, why not start the weekend with a pop, by indulging in our Fizz and Chips offer? From 4pm on Fridays until the end of September, enjoy a bottle of Chandon accompanied by a generous portion of Q’s chips for £39. Relax in the bar or if weather permits, sit back and take in the beautiful views from our waterside terrace.

]]>http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/chandon-at-the-old-quay-house/feed/0Summer recipe: coriander cured salmonhttp://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/summer-recipe-coriander-cured-salmon/
http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/summer-recipe-coriander-cured-salmon/#commentsThu, 07 Aug 2014 13:51:06 +0000http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/?p=1122Our head chef Ben Bass loves nothing more than creating new dishes for our guests at Q Restaurant. Here’s his recipe for ‘coriander cured salmon with avocado, fennel and smoked tomato’. About this dish Ben says: “This is a really tasty starter or supper for those early autumn evenings. Refreshing and light, this dish is rich without any heavy creams or butters. It’s also gluten and dairy free and full of healthy fats.” Happy cooking.

Head Chef of Q restaurant Ben Bass

Coriander cured salmon, avocado, fennel and smoked tomato

by Ben Bass, head chef at Q restaurant, The Old Quay House

Ingredients

For the Cured salmon:
500g piece of fresh salmon, from the middle of the fish
Half a bunch of coriander
200g salt
100g sugar
Zest of 1 lime

1.The salmon needs to cure for 24 hours so this recipe does require a bit of forward planning. Firstly, whizz all of the curing ingredients together in a blender, then lay several sheets of cling film down to make a thick wrap for the salmon to sit in. Place the salmon skin side down and cover with the salt mix and wrap up tightly. Place this in the fridge for 24 hours.

2. This dish goes well with a smoky tomato paste. The tomatoes need to be completely dried so cut them thinly and then place then on a low heat in the oven. Once they have dried out, blend them in a food processor with a teaspoon of smoky paprika to make a paste. This can be done the day before or on the day you’re going to eat the salmon.

4. Next make the avocado sorbet by blending everything together until smooth. In the restaurant we freeze this in an ice cream machine but if you don’t have one and are eating the sorbet that day then you can place it in the freezer and stir it every 20 minutes until it has an ice cream like consistency.

5. After 24 hours of curing, your salmon is ready to eat. You can remove the salmon from the cling film and rinse it under the tap. Pat it and dry it and then cut it into six portions.

6. To serve up, thinly slice a bulb of fennel and mix it with a few tablespoons of olive oil, a few tablespoons of lime juice and one tomato that has been skinned, seeded and diced. Spread this across the plate and place the salmon on top.

7. Place a serving of avocado sorbet next to the salmon and decorate the plate with the smoky tomato paste and some peashoots.

Q’s Waterside terrace is the ideal spot for lunch, dinner or just an early evening aperitif.

We’re open for lunch and dinner throughout the summer with al fresco dining on our waterside terrace when the sun is shining. To reserve a table please phone: 01726 833302, or email: info@theoldquayhouse.com

]]>http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/summer-recipe-coriander-cured-salmon/feed/0Five of the best restaurants to visit during Januaryhttp://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/five-of-the-best-restaurants-to-visit-during-january/
http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/five-of-the-best-restaurants-to-visit-during-january/#commentsFri, 17 Jan 2014 10:48:52 +0000http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/?p=835Christmas may be over, but for us the season of enjoying delicious food never ends. We love the mix of gastronomy Cornwall has to offer; however during January, it is often hard to find restaurants open as many close for refurbishment or a well-earned break. We’ve compiled a list of some of our favourite restaurants which remain open for business to help keep the winter blues at bay.

Fifteen Cornwall

We couldn’t leave Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall at Watergate Bay off our list. After all, it is one of Cornwall’s most famous dining hotspots.

Fifteen’s culinary ethos is clear; to create dishes using locally sourced and produced ingredients. Head Chef Andy Appleton brings the flavours of Italy to Cornwall through an array of Mediterranean-inspired dishes prepared in a Josper charcoal-fired oven. The tasting menu has been designed for a whole table to share. It includes five courses for £60 per person or seven courses for £80 per person. Wine pairing is an additional £45 per person for five courses or £60 per person for seven courses. Make a beeline for the antipasti bar if you’re in the mood for a light bite.

Q Restaurant

Positioned alongside Fowey’s waterfront, our renowned Q Restaurant offers a menu carefully crafted by head chef Ben Bass. Since rejoining us in October 2013, Ben has completely revived The Old Quay House’s menu, with an emphasis on seasonal dishes, making the most of the bounty of local produce on our doorstep.

Join us for duck confit, local scallops and a pina colada mousse – are your taste buds zinging yet? We also offer an extensive hand-picked wine list so you can enjoy Fowey Estuary’s colourful waterside life with a glass in hand.

The Old Quay House | 01726 833302

Austell’s, Carlyon Bay

Set along the beautiful Carlyon Bay, Austell’s was awarded, and has maintained, 2 AA rosettes for Culinary Excellence since 2008. Head chef Brett Camborne-Paynter’s culinary repertoire includes The Ivy, The Waldorf and The Four Seasons with Jean Christophe Novelli.

Austell’s cooking style is best described as modern British dishes with subtle Mediterranean touches. We especially love their Sunday pot luck menu which features dishes including Cornish pigeon breast, poached potato gnocchi and caramelised lemon tart.

The Seafood Restaurant, Padstow

If you love seafood as much as we do, then we’d definitely recommend a visit to Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant in the fishing port of Padstow. Rick Stein is famed for creating imaginative dishes which are inspired by his own travels. Head chef Stephane Delourme and his team have developed a menu which majors on fresh oysters and langoustines, mussels, turbot, dover sole, lobster and sashimi.

The Seafood Restaurant also hosts charity lunches in aid of Save the Children. Last year they raised over £10,000 for the charity. This year’s lunches will run from Wednesday 15th January to Sunday 9th February 2014 (excludes 18th January 2014), where you can enjoy a three-course lunch for £18 with a £2.50 cover charge donated directly to Save the Children. Sample dishes include fish and shellfish soup with rouille and parmesan, Newlyn fish pie and chocolate tart with seville orange sorbet. Tickets are now sold out, but seating will be available at the bar each day.

Sam’s in the City

Sam’s is a family business and a much loved group of fashionable restaurants throughout Cornwall. Sam’s started life as a 60s-inspired lounge/bistro in Fowey, but has expanded to a beachside restaurant in Polkerris (temporarily closed between January 12th – 31st) and a cool city bistro in Truro. Sam’s on the Beach is just a coastal walk away from us, and occupies a former lifeboat house on the water’s edge. Far-reaching views of the harbour and St Austell bay beyond make it a truly unique destination.

Sams’ newest opening in Truro is an extension of its fun and flirty personality, complete with a Champagne bar, funky memorabilia and music. We love its fun twist on traditional dishes: expect rustic yet beautifully presented food served by the platter. We recommend the sharing Seafood Feast Deluxe for £41.95, which includes pan-seared garlic scallops, red thai mullet, calamari, and moules marinière.

]]>http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/five-of-the-best-restaurants-to-visit-during-january/feed/0Recipe from Ben Bass: braised pig’s cheek with pearl barley risottohttp://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/recipe-from-ben-bass-braised-pigs-cheek-with-pearl-barley-risotto/
http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/recipe-from-ben-bass-braised-pigs-cheek-with-pearl-barley-risotto/#commentsFri, 20 Dec 2013 15:32:13 +0000http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/?p=820As we move towards the festive break there’s a big focus on food, especially here at the Old Quay House where our head chef Ben Bass will be busy in the kitchen. Here’s a Q Restaurant favourite and a recipe that Ben swears by. It involves a bit of preparation, but pig’s cheeks are an often overlooked part of meat and are very tender when cooked for a long time. They can be purchased from most local butchers and are very good value for money. Plus this dish is delicious and a definite wintery crowd pleaser. Happy cooking!

Braised pig’s cheek, pearl barley risotto, parmesan and hazelnuts

This will make enough for four starters or you could scale it up to make four mains.

Step 9
Put the barley in hot bowls. Top with pigs cheeks and dust with some chopped hazelnuts. Add a little sauce and serve.

]]>http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/recipe-from-ben-bass-braised-pigs-cheek-with-pearl-barley-risotto/feed/0New arrivals at The Old Quay Househttp://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/new-arrivals-at-the-old-quay-house/
http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/new-arrivals-at-the-old-quay-house/#commentsWed, 04 Dec 2013 15:11:36 +0000http://www.theoldquayhouse.com/blog/?p=814We are really excited to welcome back Ben Bass and Alison Zutshi to our team at The Old Quay House. Ben returns as head chef of Q Restaurant and Alison joins us as general manager.

Ben and Alison have both worked here in various guises over the years and we are delighted to have them back on board.

Ben began cooking at the age of 13 and went on to train under Raymond Blanc at his restaurant Le Petit Blanc in Cheltenham. He originally joined The Old Quay House as sous chef in 2002 before taking over as head chef in 2005. In 2011, Ben left to continue his culinary development at Fowey Hall and Lewtrenchard Manor in Devon.

Our new head chef Ben Bass has a French classical style of cooking and trained with Raymond Blanc. His menu favourites include Fowey river oysters, local scallops and West Country meats and cheeses.

Ben’s style of cooking works perfectly with our location here on the estuary. It is classical English food with a French twist. Ben also has a real appreciation for local produce so you can expect lots of local favourites such as Fowey mussels and West County meats on his menu.

Outside of the kitchen, Ben also works closely with Fowey Community College and is regularly invited to demonstrate to the students who have a strong interest in cooking.

For the last few years Alison has been running her own sailing business in the Caribbean. She also previously owned the Toll Bar restaurant in Fowey so knows the area well.

On joining us here, Alison said: “I think this is the fourth time in total that Ben and I will have worked together at The Old Quay House. Fowey just seems to draw you back, as it does with our guests actually. A lot of people visit and want to live here.

“There is definitely something very special about The Old Quay House that has seen us both come back: the location, the beautiful interiors and of course the food.”